Family Ties

I'm so glad Prince and Princess are growing up close to their cousins.

I have had the good fortune of being born into a close-knit family. I grew up in a town with both sets of grandparents and I got to see my aunts, uncles, and cousins frequently. I took that for granted as I was growing up because it was just a normal part of my life.
When Hubby and I married 8 years ago, he was working 6 1/2 hours from my hometown and off I moved. I had never really been away before, except for the semester I tried college 2 hours away, which was not a good fit for me. So this was an adventure, being so far away from everyone I knew, but it was really good for me...for is. It was great that Hubby and I were beginning our new life together in a town that was all our own. We had wonderful times there, just the two of us, but once we had children, it was hard to think about them not growing up near their grandparents. It also became a necessity that I have help, given my health complications with Crohn's.
Thankfully, Hubby was able to find a job back home and we moved back closer to family. In fact, after being away for 6 years, while we were house hunting, I wanted something with a little bit of distance...close enough, but not too close. We must have looked at 30 houses, but THE house, the one that felt like home and was a price we could afford, was in the same neighborhood as the rest of the family. So we live one street over from my sister and two streets over from my parents and my grandmother. This is a good thing. You might think that having everyone so close would be claustrophobic. It really isn't. Mostly we are busy, doing our own thing and we are busy with school, work, dance lessons, softball games, etc. But it is surely convenient to be so close and it is fun. After church this afternoon we had a super fun cook-out/pool party....just because. I am so glad that my children will experience the love and support from a close-knit family. This is a good thing and a blessing from the Lord.

This is a picture of my parents with the Prince and the Princess

P.S. I realized while looking for pictures of us al together, that we have been slacking on taking group pictures! I couldn't find anything really recent.